Challenging suicide as a solution: crisis negotiation assessment and interventions

¶ … successfully assess the intentions and conviction of a suicidal person. The particular means that are utilized by a negotiator, however, largely depend on the circumstances in which the suicidal person is found by the negotiator (Raymond 2006). If the negotiator happens to be an initial response call taker on the phone, for example, he or she will only have verbal cues to base his or her assessment upon. However, once a negotiator is able to be in relative close proximity with a suicidal person in order to engage him or her in conversation, the assessment process can largely be based upon body language. Mannerisms, movements, and tone of voice can be fairly revealing about how close a suicidal person is to actually committing the act. Erratic body language, for example, should be taken as a sign of unpredictability and compulsion, and should be dealt with accordingly. Aggravated tones of voice and loud shouting, adamant gesticulations and other forms of exaggerated behavior are also telltale signs that someone is in a state of excitement in which anything, including the unwanted act (unwanted by the negotiator, that is), of suicide is a distinct possibility.

Another key facet in determining a fair assessment of the conviction and the underlying intentions of a suicidal person can be revealed in the circumstances that he or she talks about. Common reasons for suicidal impulses may be linked to bereavement, divorce, substance abuse, and depression (Joseph 2011). These factors, in combination with the manner in which a suicidal person relates these circumstances (via both verbal and non-verbal communication), can all be used to enable a negotiator to ascertain exactly how far along in the process of suicide that someone happens to be.

In order to successfully challenge the belief of a suicidal person who is under the impression that suicide is the only solution to relieve the pain and loss that they are experiencing, the negotiator must maintain a calm facade and demeanor -- even if the suicidal person is threatening to keep the act then and there. The most successful way to overcome what in most times is largely an irrational belief on the part of suicidal people is to help them realize that what they are experiencing -- whatever their particular reaction is to pain or loss -- is a simply temporal thing that will pass with the time. Time is a key facet in almost any suicidal negotiation, the more time a negotiator has with his or her potential victim, the better. This notion is attributed to the fact that suicide is widely induced in people as a compulsion -- as a gut reaction to a series of circumstances that is so devastating (or perceived to be so devastating), that the immediate, short-term answer is to bring about the destruction of one's life.